1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to cosmetics, personal care, and pharmaceuticals, and more particularly to manual applicators of encapsulated liquids for cosmetic, hygienic, or medical purposes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 7,419,321 and EP1679096 (Tereschouk) describe a manual applicator of encapsulated liquids that includes an absorber, a drainable dissector, and a back side with a central duplication serving as a grip that are welded together along the edge of the applicator. A capsule (preferably, pressurized) of a liquid is elastically fixed between the flat flexible back side and dissector. This solution has been found to have the following limitations:                After a rupture of the capsule, the applicator collapses (flattening of the applicator is mandatory for bringing the grip into the working vertical position), which causes its deformation and loss of stability (the absorber becomes flabby and folding; the risen grip is loose and poorly controllable) and hinders its use;        The applicator made of flexible materials is unstable and often bends, particularly on curved surfaces; the bent down edge may scratch the skin;        The welding seam of the applicator often leaks at the back side thickenings (at folds of the flat back side and at the grip welding points);        Pressurized capsules do not allow sufficient shelf life, occupy much storage space, and may spontaneously rupture while non-pressurized capsules are hard to break in the hand;        The weight of capsules is spread over few central elevations (knobs) of the flat dissector, which results in an uneven stretching of the capsule bottom and its propensity to a spontaneous rupture.        
Though Tereschouk identified the problem of the applicator warping in use and indicated that this could be solved by making the flat dissector or the back side or both of them more rigid, no other aforementioned problems were identified.
Accordingly, an object of this invention was to create an applicator of encapsulated liquids that would not collapse, leak, or scratch, and has a sufficient shelf life and smaller dimensions for the same liquid volume. Another object was to find a solution that would make the applicator more rigid (unbending) and functioning on curved surfaces.